A Journey of Faith: The Holy Spirit Showed Up and Showed Out

Anthony Maranise

This is the fourth and final in a series of blogs where I asked St. Ann educators if they would be willing to write a blog on what it has been like teaching during this pandemic. Several of our educators took time to write down their thoughts. So, this is the final St. Ann educator reflection. Last but not least is our eighth grade Religion educator, Anthony Maranise.

Most of my learners at St. Ann (and some of my faculty-friends) know that I am learning not only along with and from them regularly, but also as I simultaneously work towards my doctorate as I teach. I mention this simply because much of my doctoral coursework is online already. When the coronavirus outbreak began, as so many of you now know well, teachers across the world were ‘forced’ online to instruct their learners remotely. As a rather extroverted person, I derive much of my passion for teaching from the genuine joy of being able to directly and meaningfully interact with my learners – whether that is through in-person instruction or even mere casual pleasantries as we pass one another in the hallways. Though the precautionary impacts of the pandemic deprived me, temporarily, of that joy, it did not, could not, and will not stifle my passion for education nor the good zeal I have for the learners entrusted to my care. What the pandemic did do for me, as an educator, is – somewhat ironically – teach me two lessons which I would like to briefly share with you.

St. John Baptist de La Salle

Lesson 1: Insofar as I had adjusted to online learning myself for my own studies, I quickly learned that there exists a vast chasm of difference between learning online and teaching online. The latter (that is, teaching online) is far more difficult, even though the content I am responsible for disseminating may be elementary to me. It is not and never is about us as educators when we are teaching; it is solely about and for the benefit of our learners. Moreover, I am a religious educator so it is not only integral to my mission, but part of my responsibility not just to academically form my learners, but to also – in the words of the Patron Saint of Educators, St. John Baptiste de La Salle – “touch hearts which [I] cannot possibly do without the help of the Holy Spirit.” That said, I had to quickly take content I would have presented a certain way in classes in-person and format it, as meaningfully as possible for online engagement, in a way that would compel my learners to demonstrate concept mastery to that rigorous level they have come to expect from me (and I from them), but also in a way that would “touch [their] hearts”. The Holy Spirit “showed up and showed out”, as the phrase resounds, in their submitted works because many of their responses, comments, questions, and engagements made clear that their hearts had been touched, but in the process, they touched my own – adding even greater passion to my already aflame love for educating at St. Ann.

Lesson 2: An additional precautionary action during the pandemic (apart from the temporary physical distancing from our schools) was that of a sort of ‘freeze’ to public worship, liturgical, and/or sacramental offerings. I know that I am but one among many of the faithful for whom this was difficult, but I found some comfort in the wisdom of a book written by a friend of mine (and to many). In Living the Sacraments, Fr. David Knight writes, “In a sense, everything in life becomes a prayer. Everything becomes an experience of oneness with Christ because we are united with Him – in desire and in fact – in everything we do” (p. 37). There it was! Though our sacramental and worship lives – along with nearly every other conceivable aspect – had been disrupted to some extent by this pandemic, it would be in and through my passion for teaching and engagement (even though digital) with my learners (all of whom truly and vibrantly bear and outwardly reflect “the image and likeness of God” [Gen. 1:27] as we all do) that I would remain spiritually-grounded! The renowned Christian apologist and English literary phenom, C.S. Lewis, adds further support to Fr. Knight’s wise counsel, noting, “There are no ‘ordinary’ people. You have never spoken to a mere mortal… Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses” (The Weight of Glory). We took the precautions that we did out of loving concern for these persons – our neighbors – who are holy bearers of God’s own image and likeness. But, even though we were made physically distant from them – particularly for us educators, from our learners and faculty-friends – so many of us found greater union with God not through being apart from them, but in the being apart, by coming to realize how important these persons are to us; indeed, how much they teach, form, and add value to our own lives – often even more so than we do to theirs.